Music For Many Pianos
Piano Day is celebrated on the 88th day of each year, a tribute to the standard piano’s 88 keys. The event was founded in 2015 by German musician Nils Frahm, whose work has been a major inspiration to me. To honor the significance of the number 88, I composed a piece built around 88 repeating piano motifs and phrases, all set to a tempo of 88 beats per minute. A deep bass pulse resonates at 88 seconds, reinforcing the structural theme. Every sound in the piece originates from manipulated piano notes, with additional percussive elements and layered vocals performed by me, echoing the minimalist approach of another of my musical heroes, Steve Reich.
Bombs Drop Away
Becoming a father in 2016 profoundly altered my perspective, especially in witnessing the devastation of war on innocent children. In August 2017, a viral video of Omran Daqneesh, a young boy from Aleppo, sitting in the back of an ambulance after an airstrike, shook me to my core. He could have been my own son. This piece is dedicated to Omran and his brother, Ali, who tragically succumbed to his injuries days later. This project was also my first foray into video editing using Final Cut Pro. I interwove footage of Scottish artist Rebecca Cameron painting Omran’s haunting image with clips of my own son playing at a park in Little Rock, Arkansas. The video then transitions into the original footage of Omran - stunned, silent, and shellshocked - creating a deeply personal reflection on the fragility of childhood and the indiscriminate horrors of war.
Session Work for Jason Weinheimer at Fellowship Hall Sound
(The promotion and release of any tracks I work on as a session musician are the rights of the artist, so for the purposes here of highlighting my session work, the artist will remain anonymous.)
This track is one of many where Jason Weinheimer of Fellowship Hall Sound brought me in as a session musician. The artist requested an accordion part for the instrumental section beginning at 2:31, which you’ll hear prominently. My approach to session work is always to enhance the music beyond expectations, and in this case, I felt the song needed additional elements to drive it forward. Inspired by the opening lyric, “Two kids waltzing down the street”, I introduced a violin and viola to mirror that imagery, later expanding the arrangement into a fuller string quartet, which emerges at 2:02. Additionally, I layered in a B3 Hammond Organ, appearing at 2:21 and again at 3:10, adding warmth and depth to the track. All instruments, aside from the accordion, drums, and piano, were meticulously programmed using MIDI, ensuring an organic and cohesive performance that feels like a live ensemble playing together in real time.
Expressive Painting with Music Workshop
Artist Hamid Ebrahimifar and I began collaborating in March 2023, expanding on his vision of using music as a catalyst for painting. Our process integrates handmade brushes crafted from bamboo and horsehair, allowing sound to guide artistic expression. This video captures our initial exploratory session in my home studio, where we tested the interplay between live music and visual art. Since then, we have co-hosted two sold-out workshops at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, with four additional sessions planned for 2025. Open to both amateur and professional artists - including those with no prior painting experience - these workshops encourage participants to trust the music as an intuitive guide for their brushwork. The impact has been profound, with some attendees creating astonishing pieces and even experiencing deeply emotional responses. From a technical standpoint, my role involves preparing an extensive digital template in Apple Logic Pro, akin to how a painter preps their materials. Using MIDI virtual instruments, I assemble a full symphonic orchestra, solo instruments, synthesizers, and percussion. I perform and record live loops, shaping the music dynamically to create a meditative and immersive environment that fosters creative flow. The enthusiastic response from participants underscores the value of this workshop. It not only provides a unique intersection of music and visual art but also inspires new creative practices. The experience has been deeply fulfilling, reaffirming the transformative potential of interdisciplinary collaboration.
An Amazing Grace
(Note that this appears on YouTube under a previous artist name of mine, Our Fairest Mirror.) Growing up in Scotland, I was immersed in the works of the great classical composers, but it wasn’t until my twenties that I discovered American composers like Aaron Copland and John Adams. Their music felt widescreen, majestic, and open - far less pretentious than many European compositions. After immigrating to America and gaining access to playable virtual instruments through MIDI, my piano became a gateway to explore a broader range of orchestral colors and textures reminiscent of these American composers. During the 2020 U.S. presidential campaign, I was inspired to put these tools to use by merging two classic American melodies, The Star-Spangled Banner and Amazing Grace, weaving them throughout the orchestra. The themes pass between sections until a bold, solo trumpet - evoking Taps - cuts through the calm. I then incorporated a musical motif based on the year 1776, using the first, seventh, and sixth notes of the A major scale, building toward a grand crescendo before releasing into a more playful interplay between pizzicato strings and piccolo, echoing the spirit of Copland and Adams. I paired the music with slow-motion iPhone footage of a massive American flag dividing the screen down the middle, symbolizing the deep political divisions in the country at the time. This layered over scenes of driving through a forest in Arkansas, creating a visual metaphor for both division and resilience. The piece concludes with a snippet of then Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris at a campaign rally, leaving the words: “To the children of our country, see yourselves.”